Child resistant cap and tube assemblies which carry medicines, vitamins and the like have become of great interest to the pharmaceutical industry. It is a growing need that container assemblies should be difficult for children to open, particularly accidentally. Also, increased interest is being shown in tube and cap assemblies which cannot be opened by happenstance but which require a specific and positive step to be taken in order to have access to the contents. This is particularly true when medicines, vitamins and topical treatments such as eye drops are contained in tubes.
In actual practice, the assurance that the tube has not been opened prematurely is sometimes more important than the need to prevent undesirable tampering, such as by a child. This is because the contents, while valuable, are not dangerous and it is more important to know whether or not the contents have been contaminated or, perhaps, partially spilled. Particularly when unit doses are provided in a tube, it is important that the full quantity of medicine which has been prescribed be delivered to the patient.
Prior art devices have not yet produced a practical child resistant cap and tube assembly. One prior art design includes a three piece construction in which a tube body contains a plug attached to a portion of the main body of the tube. The wall of the tube has been weakened sufficiently to permit the plug to be torn from the tube. A cap portion is designed so that one end might be fitted over the tube having the plug, thereby protecting the plug and tube. The other end is then designed to interact with the plug in a twisting manner to remove the plug by rupturing the thin wall of the tube to which the plug is attached. This design has not been effective, however, because of the additional concern caused by the existence of the plug and the need for safe and reliable disposal of the plug.
Accordingly, it is still important that a new and improved cap and tube assembly which is child-resistant and suitable for a high reliability pass/fail inspection would be of great value to the pharmaceutical industry. This product would therefore also be of great value to the children and other consumers of these products. It would be of particular value if a device could be provided which permits easy inspection of unit dose sterile medicaments which do not contain preservatives in the product, to avoid use of spoiled or contaminated products.